Sub-series F-61-5-3 - Web news releases

Title and statement of responsibility area

Title proper

Web news releases

General material designation

  • Textual records
  • Records in electronic form (born-digital)

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Level of description

Sub-series

Reference code

F-61-5-3

Edition area

Edition statement

Edition statement of responsibility

Class of material specific details area

Statement of scale (cartographic)

Statement of projection (cartographic)

Statement of coordinates (cartographic)

Statement of scale (architectural)

Issuing jurisdiction and denomination (philatelic)

Dates of creation area

Date(s)

  • 2002-2019 (Creation)

Physical description area

Physical description

10.6 GB of textual records (ca. 3500 news releases): pdf files

Publisher's series area

Title proper of publisher's series

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Archival description area

Name of creator

Custodial history

Scope and content

Sub-series consists of news releases created and disseminated online by Communications and Marketing and its predecessors. Media and Public Relations (as the department was then known) began posting university news releases on the SFU website in 2002, and by 2003 only the web version was retained as paper copies were discontinued. This sub-series consists of pdf copies of the web news releases. For the earlier paper records, see series 5-1; for the early years there is some duplication between paper and digital versions.

For the years up to and including part of 2011, only the text of the new releases survives, without formatting, photographs or links; from 2011 on, the pdf captures formatted text, images and links, though many of the links have become obsolete with the passage of time ("dead links"). For more information about the transfer process (and its effect on the form and content of the records), see the note below on Availability of other formats.

Notes area

Physical condition

Immediate source of acquisition

Arrangement

Releases are organized chronologically. Each year is treated as a file and each individual news release an item within it. No releases for the year 2003 survive. Most years from 2002-2010 include a small number of undated entries, appearing at the head of the item list. For these releases, all that survives is the title and year, and the pdf text is in fact blank. These were retained because the titles are themselves at least partially informative of certain events and can potentially be used to find other records relating to the events in other fonds.

Language of material

  • English
  • French

Script of material

    Language and script note

    A very small number of the releases are in French.

    Location of originals

    Availability of other formats

    The records were created by the department on the university's web content management system. By 2019, when the Archives worked with Communications and Marketing on the transfer of the records, the content was distributed over several different servers. Releases from 2002-2011 were stored offline on a legacy server, while 2011-2019 releases were on the active web server (Adobe Experience Manager). Images appearing in the releases were sometimes stored separately on SFU Vault or on the department's Flickr account.

    The Archives (Alex Garnett) created scripts to output each release as a separate pdf file, with a standardized cover page indicating how it was generated. For the earlier material stored offline, the script captured only the date and text of the release, and it redacted the telephone numbers of story contacts. In a small number of cases, the actual text of the release was missing, and the script could only extract a title and year (see note on Arrangement above). For the releases still online, the script captured the look and feel of the page, and it traced links to externally stored images to embed the image in the pdf file.

    Restrictions on access

    The records are open with no restrictions.

    Terms governing use, reproduction, and publication

    Copyright ownership in the web news releases is mixed.

    All text was authored by SFU employees and belongs to SFU. The Archives provides access to these materials under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial license (CC BY-NC).

    Many photographs included in the releases were also created by SFU. Some images, however, were originally represented via links to external sites and may have been created by third parties (e.g. the subject of the release) who retain copyright. Ownership in particular photographs must be assessed case-by-case.

    For materials in which SFU does not own copyright, the Archives makes copies available for private study or research purposes under the fair dealing provisions of Canada's Copyright Act. Use for any other purpose may require the permission of the copyright owner. SFU Archives can assist researchers in attempting to identify copyright owners, but it is the user's responsibility to contact owners and secure any required permissions.

    Finding aids

    Generated finding aid

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    Related materials

    Accruals

    Future accruals are expected.

    Physical description

    The total size (10.6 GB) includes originals, preservation copies and access copies.

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    Description record identifier

    Institution identifier

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    Status

    Level of detail

    Dates of creation, revision and deletion

    Language of description

      Script of description

        Sources

        Accession area